Very, Very Discouraged

There is nothing I want more than an improved golf game. That is why I have started lessons with the PGA pro at my home course. I want to write a super upbeat blog post about how much I’m improving and how the swing is really coming together. I want to report that I’m gaining confidence in my rebuilt swing and that the fundamentals I’m trying to groove are helping.

The truth is, the opposite is happening and I am serioulsy starting to lose hope. Things are not improving, at least, noticeably for me. My swing is a hit or miss, literally. Some of the shots I hit, while trying as hard as I can to swing correctly, are honestly the worst, ugliest shots I’ve ever hit. My first day out on a golf course 30 years ago wasn’t this bad.

I don’t know why I’m struggling so and it pains me to be such a whiner here but this is the honest truth and the reality for me right now. This blog is a diary for me, mostly, a way to track my progress, but so far there is little progress to track.

Maybe it’s my age? I’m 55. But I should be able to learn a new skill at my age. I’m not uncoordinated, quite the opposite. Most sports have come easily to me. In fact, most things I’ve tried to learn have come easily to me. Golf is the lone exception and it is coming so, so hard for me, that I am just down on myself right now. It is destroying me.

But let’s look at the positives, ways I have definitely improved.

Grip

Body positioning during the swing

That’s about it. I take many practice swings in my home. They feel good. I’m in balance. I shift my weight. All is well. You get me out in the grass staring down at a ball and a whole other thing happens.

I am terrified of that silly little white ball. I know I am all tensed up now trying to get the swing right. It is a hot mess.

I have become a head case over this. I apologize to readers that I’m negative today. Maybe I won’t be next time. I just don’t know. My third lesson keeps getting postponed because of rain.

I am embarrassed to hit balls at a driving range, at the practice area at my course, anywhere someone could see me – which is pretty much everywhere. I think the only solution is to get a practice net and set up a hitting area in total privacy in my garage.

Rebuilding my swing could take a year. Two years. Five years.

I know it will never be perfect. I just want to at least hit the ball as consistent as before I started lessons. At least that. I want to hit the ball as far with the newly learned fundamental half swing as I can with an all arm, no weight shift chip shot. So far, that is not the case. In other words, when I do get the trajectory and direction of the shot right, it has little to no power behind it.

I wonder if there are others who struggled quite this bad. God I hope so. I’d hate to be alone in this black vacuum of progress.

Favorite Golf Quotes

"Ask yourself how many shots you would have saved if you always developed a strategy before you hit, always played within your capabilities, never lost your temper, and never got down on yourself."
Jack Nicklaus